Penguin Nail Art Tutorial

The Cutest Nail Art You'll See All Season (Hint: Penguins)

When the weather gets chilly, there's no better way to dress up your nails than with a Winter-friendly penguin. This design wins big points in the cuteness category, but it's also a pretty easy design to freehand yourself.

I started off with the perfect winterscape hue, Formula X For Sephora in Unmistakable ($11), on all my nails. You don't even have to wait for the base color to dry before moving onto the next step: the penguin. Use an opaque black polish like Essie's Licorice ($9) to create the body of the penguin with a U-shape. Make sure to leave a little bit of the background showing. Next, you'll want to layer on the white parts of the penguin: the eyes and belly. Use an opaque white polish like Butter London Cotton Buds ($15) to paint on a smaller U-shape to create the stomach. Then, using the dotting tool from the Butter London Backstage Basics Nail Art Tool Kit ($18), I created the two white eyes, and then again with the black dots for the pupils. Lastly, I used Essie Meet Me at Sunset ($9) to create the orange beak and feet using the striper brush from the same tool kit.

Lastly, to bring the chilly nail art together, I used the dotting tool to create varying sized spots on the rest of my nails to give it a snowy look. The best part about each step is that you don't have to wait for the polish to dry. However, you should try to give each layer a minute or two to set, so the colors don't run. Once you're finished, seal everything in with a top coat, but wait for five to 10 minutes, so the colors don't bleed.